Sassafras Slipstreams New Features into K2 – KeyAuditor & KeyServer, version 6.0

Technical Advisory – December 15, 2005. Sassafras Software announced today that it has pre-released several new features into K2 – KeyAuditor & KeyServer version 6.0 that were previously planned for release in version 6.1.

K2 is a cross-platform IT asset management (ITAM) tool for software asset management (SAM), hardware auditing, usage tracking, and software license compliance. It manages software assets for Windows, Macintosh, and thin-client computers across any global network including the management of laptop computers both inside and outside a firewall.

Throughout Sassafras’ sixteen-year development history, the company has routinely added certain new features to a current version of its software rather than publishing a new version, which would require current customers to pay for the new features. This practice was employed in 2005 during the company’s transition from K2 6.0 to version 6.1.

Of four major product enhancements that were originally slated for K2 6.1, Sassafras released the following three of them for free to current K2 6.0 users.

Enhancements to K2’s Extensive Collection of Reports
Numerous report templates have been added to K2’s extensive collection of audit, usage, compliance, and charting reports. Plus all reports can now take advantage of optimizations that have been added to 6.0 to give customers the immediate advantage of speed increases in report execution.

K2’s built-in report templates now support hundreds of reports directly from its management console. Report functionality will be expanded even further in 2006 with a new reporting architecture slated for K2 6.1 that will include report scheduling and a web reports interface.

Management and Reporting for Organizational Divisions
In 2005, Sassafras added the ability to manage distinct organizational divisions. K2’s “Divisions” feature provides important management and reporting capabilities for IT administrators who wish to separate hardware and software assets into different departments or cost centers within their organizations.

Special Division reports have been added to measure software usage with K2 6.0, and standard reports can be restricted by Divisions or other user-defined criteria. Additional enhancements for Division management and reporting will be introduced in K2 6.1.

Standards-based Integration with Third-party Tools
Several network and SQL optimizations slated for K2 6.1 have been added to version 6.0 to provide performance boosts for built-in and custom-designed reports. K2’s reports provide details for software deployment, licensing and utilization, migration planning, and computing asset lifecycle management.

Alternatively, K2 data can be exported on an automated schedule to any enterprise data server (SQL Server, Oracle, etc.) for direct incorporation into enterprise database systems.

Availability and Pricing
K2 6.0 was shipped free to all customers who purchased K2 since November 30, 2002 or held a qualifying Upgrade Subscription Plan. Upgrade costs for older versions are computed based on the size of each K2 installation and its last purchase date. New purchase costs are computed on a per-client basis with prices ranging from below US$10 to US$68 per seat. Discounts are available for volume purchases and educational use.

About Sassafras Software, Inc.
Sassafras Software has been a pioneer in software asset management since 1989. K2 manages software assets across a local or global enterprise with a uniquely scalable, highly optimized management technology. Thousands of business, education and government customers rely on K2 to manage software assets on millions of computers throughout the world.